Night Terrors

So much for Chicago being a place to hide in.

Both of us had thought that our tail wouldn’t be able to find us in a city this size. This place is huge; how’s anyone supposed to look for two people hiding in it?

Yeah that worked out wonderfully. We saw the brown car again last night, driving around the hotel we’re at. Checked the license plate number; it’s definitely the same one.

We’d been staying in a suite style hotel, each of us with our own connected room. After realizing we were still followed, being out of contact in the night suddenly didn’t seem like as good an idea. 330 came into my room and set up a chair by the door so she could keep watch. I pointed out that she didn’t have to spend the entire night sitting in a chair, cause the bed the hotel gave me is large enough to share, and…. I didn’t think it was possible for 330 to blush. If I’d blinked, I’d have missed it, but for a moment her entire face turned red. Not sure why. She still insisted on staying with her chair. Which is how we proceeded to spend the next few nights; me asleep in bed, 330 sitting by the door.

Eventually I realized that she wasn’t just staying up part of the night to keep watch; she wasn’t sleeping at all. Took me longer than I’d have expected to notice, since she wasn’t showing signs of sleep deprivation. Or at least, not showing them as clearly as I’d have thought. When I asked her about it, she insisted that she couldn’t let her guard down to sleep.

“Besides,” she looked away from me, wearing a smile that didn’t reach the rest of her face, “I can’t seem to get the hang of going to sleep in the dark.”

I suggested that I take over for a night so she could get her sleep. She resisted the idea, and it took a while to convince her, but I think I managed. Come that night, I was the one sitting by the door. 330 was still uncertain, but did seem a little grateful for the chance to sleep. Leaving one of the nightstand lights on, she slipped under the covers and closed her eye.

An hour later, I heard the first scream.

It was muffled by the sheets, and for a moment I thought I’d imagined it. The second scream confirmed it for me. Ran over to 330’s bed, expecting some kind of trouble. She was still asleep, but occasionally a cry broke forth. Her eye patch had been taken off before she went to bed, but now both hands were covering the wound.

“Please no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no-“

I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Stood at the side of the bed like a useless idiot. Eventually she calmed down, and pulled her hands away from the hole where her eye had been. First time I’d seen the wound uncovered, and it caught me off guard. What happened to her, to cause that….

The calm didn’t last long enough for me to think about it. 330 started violently tossing in the bed, clawing at the bandages on her left hand.

“Get off of me get off of me get off of me get off get off get off get off get off-“

Wanted to help her, but didn’t know how. I’d briefly seen her like this the last time I walked in on her asleep, but that hadn’t been near as extreme. Without any other ideas, I tried doing what she’d done to me during my nightmares. Slowly, trying to avoid her violent spasms, I placed my hand on her head. She flinched at first, but seemed to calm. Then I started gently stroking her hair. Gradually, her breathing slowed, and she stopped moving around so much.

Spent most of the night sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to calm 330 whenever her panic began. She never woke up once, even during the most violent and terrified stages. Felt… odd. As if our roles had been reversed; suddenly she was the victim and I was the protector. How was this happening? 330 had always looked so confident, so strong to me. What did it take to make her break down like this?

Only once the sun began to filter through the windows did she calm down for good. I don’t think I’d looked at the door I was supposed to be guarding once the whole night. Great job, Lisa. Least nothing happened.

Well, I’m going to get some sleep now. Because I lack 330’s apparently magical ability to go without sleep indefinitely, and I feel like I’m about to collapse.

-Lisa